Roos the Dark Elf, Rogue Swashbuckler. Neutral.
Yor the Kenku, Warlock Hexblade. Chaotic Good.
Smugly the Dragonborn (red), Monk Way of the Hand. Neutral.
Moss Corgwin the Human, Druid Circle of Spores. Neutral.
Wildthorn Glimmerbranch the Wood Elf, Cleric Light Domain. Chaotic Good.
Stephen’s Character.
It was summer on the Savage Coast and the late afternoon sun warmed the inhabitants of Daggerfall. The characters were in Froggy’s Smithy, picking up some weapons that they paid to get silvered. Outside of the smithy, the general cacophony of noise could be heard as merchants hawked their wares and potential buyers milled about.
“Yep! These weapons shoul’be good fer yer werewuuulves or fer yer weretiiigers and whatnot. Also ‘ffective ‘gainst yer demuuuns. Or was it devils? Ahh, can’t ‘member. Whatever. Uh hundred gold a’piece. Heh-hmm.” Froggy declared.
CARD #1
As the characters forked over the gold, a clop-clop-clop of a horse was heard just outside of the smithy’s open door. The clopping stopped and a colorfully dressed human male was seen tying a dusty, lathered horse to a post. The human glanced up at the party and he seemed to recognize them, even though the group had never seen the man before. He made his way through the open doors of the smithy.
The man had a wiry build and wore a red tunic. His long dark hair was tied back, and he sported a trimmed goatee, all of which was proceeded by a prominent nose. On his head he wore a cavalier’s hat with a light blue feather jutting along the side of it. For armaments he had a short sword, several daggers that were visible, and a crossbow that peeked over his left shoulder. His entire person was covered in dust and grime, presumably from traveling along the road.
The dusty man sauntered slowly towards the group with a scroll case in hand. “My name is
Arrigal and I have been sent to you to deliver this message.” He handed the message to Smugly, who happened to be closest to him. He spoke with a Slavic accent to the best of the DM’s abilities. “If you be creatures of honor, you will come to my master’s aid at first light. For it is not advisable to travel through the woods at night or I would say to go now. For my master’s sake, at first light travel the east road from here for some five hours through the woods. There you will find my master in the village of Barovia. If there be nothing else, I must hasten home. As I said, the woods are dangerous and daylight’s burning.”
A short conversation ensues. The group wants to return with him, but Arrigal explains that he is in a rush, and they would only slow him down. Exit Arrigal, stage right.
CARD #2
Smugly, proud of the fact that he can read, read the letter aloud:
Hail to thee of might and valor.
I, a lowly servant of Barovia, send honor to thee. We plead for thy so desperately needed assistance.
The love of my life, Ireena Kolyana, has been afflicted by an evil so deadly that even the good people of our village cannot protect her. She languishes from her wound, and I would have her saved from this menace.
There is much wealth in this community. I offer all that might be had to thee and thy fellows if thou shalt but answer my desperate plea.
Come quickly, for her time is at hand! All that I have shall be thine!
Kolyan Indirovich Burgomaster
After he exited, Froggy informed them that Arrigal is probably a Vistani since he mentioned Barovia. The Vistani come into Daggerfall from time to time to trade. They usually travel in groups though, not individually like this guy. The characters also questioned others. Here’s what they found out
*The Vistani are traders. They especially like to buy wine.
*One person mentioned that they’re thieves. No convincing story to back this, just heard from a guy who heard from a guy.
*Another person mentioned that they’re superstitious. Again, a repeated rumor.
*No one has ever been to village of Barovia.
The group decided to take up the offer. They would leave at first light, so they found lodging in the church of Corellon Larethian, thanks to the acolyte Wildthorn. Their sleep was restless as they all shared the same prophetic dream.
CARD #3
The images flickered between two visions. In the first vision, it was a black void that contained five cards being flipped over in sequence. The second vision showed the group within the confines of a colorful tent where five cards were being flipped by a human. The dreamer saw this from the perspective of overhead.
As the dream flickered back and forth from these two visions, the group was shown in various states: Sometimes the five of them were in perfect health, sometimes they had new scars, sometimes the group had a different member, sometimes several different members, sometimes it showed [Stephen’s Character] there.
In this second vision, the group sat on the ground around a low table covered in black velvet. At the other side of the table sat an ancient woman who was flipping each card. As the card was flipped, she would tap the card and mouthed words to the group. Apparently, she was explaining what each card meant, but there was no sound in this dream.
The group woke and shared their dream. Cue the stilted improv for the sake of exposition. I’ll spare you the details, but it’s important to say that everybody shared the fact that they all had the same dream.
CARD #4
After eating some gruel, the group travelled along the Eastern Road to the forest. Everything was fine and dandy, birds were chirping, and the sun was shining. Everyone was quite happy, except the Dark Elf of course. Shortly after their midday meal, that all changed. That’s when a thick mist creeped in and surrounded the group, growing ever thicker.
The group sensed that this was unnatural, as it grew so thick that vision was hampered by it. They also noticed that there was no longer any ambient sound from the forest. They held hands and decided to stay put, which they quickly discovered was a mistake as some of them grew ill from the mist. That’s when they ran for it and the mist eventually receded.
CARD #5
The group now found themselves along a muddy road in a forest of entirely different nature. It was still mid-afternoon, but the sky was overcast. Different trees filled the forest, ones that were spare of leaves and seemed to claw at the sky above. Moss Corgwin also made another perturbing discovery, they were now heading west along the road, even though they were heading east before the mist. Everyone was quite gloomy now, except the Dark Elf of course who no longer suffered the ill effects of sunlight.
After about a half an hour of traveling, the forest foliage began to fill out, but this only seemed to serve to hide any potential threats. They also came upon some massive gates that were closed and barred their way. The group took many evasive maneuvers on their approach to these gates, such as sprinting from tree to tree, lying prone with a bow, Yor saying “on point” for some reason, and readying of actions of various sorts. In the end, the gates swung noisily open when they got close to them.
After they passed through the gates, the massive doors swung close with a clang. Yor tried to open the gate door, but it was locked.
“We are trapped” he said in his oh so Hawking-esque manner.
The group continued and the road turned southwest.
Wildthorn was the first to smell it, but eventually the rest of the group picked up the scent. Rotting corpse. Just off the road to the south. The group found the source of the stench after a bit of travel. It looked like the remains of a peasant who had been clawed and gnawed to death and was still clutching a rolled note. Wildthorn plucked the paper away and promptly burned the body in the cleansing fire of Corellon Larethian before anybody had a say.
He read the note aloud:
Hail thee of might and valor:
I, the Burgomaster of Barovia, send you honor—with despair.
My adopted daughter, the fair Ireena Kolyana, has been these past nights harried by a vampyr. For over four hundred years, this creature has drained the life blood of my people. Now, my dear Ireena languishes from fear that the vampire will consume her blood and damn her soul. He has become too powerful to conquer.
So I say to you, give us up for dead and encircle this land with the symbols of good. Let holy men call upon their power that the devil may be contained within the walls of weeping Barovia. Leave our sorrows to our graves and save the world from this evil fate of ours.
There is much wealth entrapped in this community. Return for your reward after we are all departed for a better life.
Kolyan Indirovich Burgomaster
A similar letter to the one they already had, but with some notable differences. The group compared both letters and pondered the significance of this. That’s when the howl of a wolf cut through the air.
End session.
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